Home / Quotes / Quote by Susan Sontag

Quote by Susan Sontag

“In contrast to the asexual chasteness of official communist art , Nazi art is both prurient and idealizing. A utopian aesthetics (physical perfection; identity as a biological given) implies an ideal eroticism: sexuality converted into the magnetism of leaders and the joy of followers. The fascist ideal is to transform sexual energy into a "spiritual" force, for the benefit of the community.”

Quote by Susan Sontag

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Work

A Susan Sontag reader

This reader compiles a selection of Susan Sontag's influential writings, covering a range of topics including literature, art, photography, and cultural theory. Sontag's work is known for its intellectual rigor and innovative perspectives on contemporary issues. more

Author

Susan Sontag was an American writer, critic, and photographer. Known for her unique literary style and profound thinking, her work spans various fields including literature, art, and politics. Born on January 16, 1933, she passed away on December 28, 2004. more

You May Also Like

“I guess I think I'm writing for people who are smarter than I am, because then I'll be doing something that's worth their time. I'd be very afraid to write from a position where I consciously thought I was smarter than most of my readers.”

People Thinking Writing Position Reader Smarter

Author:Susan Sontag

“War is a culture, bellicosity is addictive, defeat for a community that imagines itself to be history's eternal victim can be as intoxicating as victory. How long will it take for the Serbs to realize that the Milosevic years have been an unmitigated disaster for Serbia, the net result of Milosevic's policies being the economic and cultural ruin of the entire region, including Serbia, for several generations? Alas, one thing we can be sure of, that will not happen soon.”

Years Long Has Beens War Happens Culture Realizing Community Results Imagine Generations One Thing Economic Policy Victory Eternal Victim Including Defeat Disaster Ruins Regions Alas Serbia

Author:Susan Sontag

“The unanimously applauded, self-congratulatory bromides of a Soviet Party Congress seemed contemptible. The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy.”

Wells Self Reality Seems Party Democracy Media Congress Officials Mature Soviet Rhetoric Unworthy Commentators Concealing Unanimity Sanctimonious

Book:At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

Source: At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

“In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.”

Needs Art Hermeneutics

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“If within the last century art conceived as an autonomous activity has come to be invested with an unprecedented stature - the nearest thing to a sacramental human activity acknowledged by secular society - it is because one of the tasks art has assumed is making forays into and taking up positions on the frontiers of consciousness (often very dangerous to the artist as a person) and reporting back what's there.”

Ifs Humans Persons Art Lasts Artist Consciousness Century Dangerous Position Activity Tasks Secular Frontiers Unprecedented Stature Human Activity Autonomous Secular Society

Author:Susan Sontag

“The notion of art as the dearly purchased outcome of an immense spiritual risk, one whose cost goes up with the entry and participation of each new player in the game.”

Art Spiritual Games Player Risk Cost Notion Outcomes Immense Participation Entry

Author:Susan Sontag

“Total experiences, of which there are many kinds, tend again and again to be apprehended only as revivals or translations of the religious imagination. To try to make a fresh way of talking at the most serious, ardent, and enthusiastic level, heading off the religious encapsulation, is one of the primary intellectual tasks of future thought.”

Way Trying Kind Imagination Religious Levels Talking Serious Intellectual Tasks Primaries Again And Again Translations Enthusiastic Revival Headings Ardent Way Of Talking

Author:Susan Sontag

“The tradition of portrait painting, to embellish or idealize the subject, remains the aim of everyday and of commercial photography, but it has had a much more limited career in photography considered as art. Generally speaking, the honors have gone to the Cordelias.”

Art Careers Gone Subjects Painting Honor Photography Tradition Aim Remains Everyday Portraits Cordelia

Book:On photography

Source: On photography

“The destiny of photography has taken it far beyond the role to which it was originally thought to be limited: to give more accurate reports on reality (including works of art). Photography is the reality; the real object is often experienced as a letdown.”

Giving Art Real Reality Roles Destiny Taken Objects Photography Including Reports Works Of Art Accurate Art Photography Letdowns

Book:On photography

Source: On photography

“Between two fantasy alternatives, that Holbein the Younger had lived long enough to have painted Shakespeare or that a prototype of the camera had been invented early enough to have photographed him, most Bardolators would choose the photograph. This is not just because it would presumably show what Shakespeare really looked like, for even if the photograph were faded, barely legible, a brownish shadow, we would probably still prefer it to another glorious Holbein. Having a photograph of Shakespeare would be like having a nail from the True Cross.”

Ifs Long Stills Two Enough Shows Would Be Fantasy Shadow Crosses Cameras Photograph Alternatives Glorious Nails Faded Prototype

Book:On photography

Source: On photography